Where to find good gardening advice

The best source of gardening advice is undoubtedly other gardeners. Keen gardeners love to talk about their hobby, and pretty much every gardener I know will be please to stop digging and planting and spend some time offering good tips and advice.

This kind of advice is especially valuable to you because local gardeners will have the best knowledge about which plants grow best in your region, what the soil type is, and which plants are traditionally grown there.

Failing that (or in addition to that advice) you will need a good grounding in many aspects of gardening. There is a myriad of places where you can find this information - garden books, catalogues and magazines and the internet will be your main sources of infomation.

A good 'Introduction to Gardening' type book will be indispensable when you are just starting out, with magazines providing useful additional information. Magazines often focus on 'what to do in your garden this month' which is very useful.

Books and magazines also often feature beautiful photographs of other gardens, and these can act as your inspiration.

The internet is an especially interesting source of information, because most plants have an enthusiast somewhere so if you want to know all abou a particlar plant type there is a good chance someone has already prepared a website all about it.

As with most hobbies and interests that seem daunting at first, you will soon discover that most of gardening is common-sense. A few hours reading about soil types, flowering seasons, potting and planting, digging and watering and you'll think you are an expert.

Advice about weed control and pest control will be next on your list, as you watch your last hosta being eaten by a snail invasion and your fruit being eaten by wasps! There is a bit of a change in pest control in recent years, and many chemical pest control products have been withdrawn because of safety and environmental concerns. Happily you will learn that new biological methods have stepped in to help. Unhappily you will find that weed and pest control, and watering, can rapidly take over your garden and life if you are not careful.

The same sources of information - books, magazines and the internet - will help you discover the possibilities available for controlling the pests.

TV programmes about gardening sometimes offer general advice and suggestions but these tend to be at a more frivolous, often with a focus on quick results, and do tend to avoid the realities of gardening - how do you reduce the moisture in that boggy part of your garden, how do you stop the neighbours thistle from seeding in your flowerbeds, etc. Still, they provide entertainment and a chance to see new possibilities.

In no time at all you will find that it is you that is giving the advice, and commenting wisely on the best techniques for pruning and planting!